Women, it is true, obtaining power by unjust means, by practising
or fostering vice, evidently lose the rank which reason would
assign them, and they become either abject slaves or capricious
tyrants. They lose all simplicity, all dignity of mind, in
acquiring power, and act as men are observed to act when they
have been exalted by the same means.

It is time to effect a revolution in female manners -- time to
restore to them their lost dignity -- and make them, as a part of
the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the
world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local
manners. -- If men be demi-gods -- why let us serve them! And if
the dignity of the female soul be as disputable as that of
animals -- if their reason does not afford sufficient light to
direct their conduct whilst unerring instinct is denied -- they
are surely of all creatures the most miserable! and, bent beneath
the iron hand of destiny, must submit to be a fair defect in creation. But to justify the ways of Providence respecting
them, by pointing out some irrefragable reason for thus making
such a large portion of mankind accountable and not accountable,
would puzzle the subtilest casuist.